AUBURN, Alabama -- By virtue of the schedule, an Auburn basketball team on a four-game winning streak gets to open the SEC slate against an Ole Miss team playing without the services of suspended scorer Marshall Henderson.

But Auburn isn't about to take the Rebels lightly.

Not with Jarvis Summers still in play. Summers, who is averaging 17.8 points per game, has Auburn's full and undivided attention as the Tigers get ready to open SEC play on the road at 6 p.m. tonight in Oxford.

Auburn has its own pair of great scorers.

KT Harrell is averaging 19.4 points per game, and Chris Denson has averaged 19 points, playing off of each other well.

Now that the Tigers are in SEC play, though, the focus turns to stopping teams defensively, and Summers presents the toughest test for a Henderson-less Ole Miss

"Jarvis Summers is that type of talent for that Ole Miss team," Auburn coach Tony Barbee said. "He is one of the elite guards in our league, if not the country, and he has the ability, just like Henderson does, to go get 30 or 40 points if he needs to."

What makes Summers so difficult to defend is his efficiency. Henderson has always been a volume shooter; Summers is making 55.2 percent of his shots and an incredible 54.5 percent of his 3-point shots.

In addition, he's got the kind of ball-handling skills that have given the Tigers problems at times this season.

"His driving game, he is crafty with the ball and you don’t know what he is going to do with it," Denson said. "He has a quick crossover."

Denson, who will match up against Summers on some possessions, tried to take responsibility for stopping the Rebels' guard tonight.

In reality, trying to make Summers work a little harder for his points will have to be a total team effort.

"When you have players, even though (Marshall) Henderson isn’t playing in the game, you have players as talented as Henderson or Jarvis Summers, just like KT (Harrell) and Chris (Denson) for us, it’s not just one individual that can guard those guys, it has to be a team approach," Barbee said.

For an Auburn team trying to erase the memory of losing 16 of its final 17 SEC games, tonight's game against Ole Miss represents an opportunity.

An opportunity to keep its recent momentum rolling.

"We haven’t had many road opportunities this year and the ones we have had on the road we haven’t been too successful at," Barbee said. "Here is an opportunity to move past that and erase that memory."